Originally from New Jersey, Florence Bindley (1868-1951) made her name initially as a male impersonator in both American vaudeville and English music hall in the 1890s. Her first Broadway show was The Captain’s Mate (1894), but her hot streak came about a decade later with A Midnight Marriage (1904), The Street Singer (1904), The Belle of the West (1905), The Girl and the Gambler (1906) and In the Nick of Time (1908). (As the poster for her biggest hit The Street Singer above demonstrates, by then she had given up the drag). She was to marry actor Darwin Karr, who acted in Hollywood film from 1911 through 1922. They both passed away in Los Angeles, Karr in 1945, Bindley 6 years later.
To learn more history about the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.
And don’t miss my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc
(Travalanche) 